We Priced 113 Claimed Perfume Dupes per Millilitre. Here Is What You Really Save

By Mahdi MST · Updated 2026-10-06 · 8 min read

Every figure below comes from the dataset, which anyone can download as a CSV file: both bottles of every pair, the shop, the size, the price and the date it was read. What follows is how the pairs were chosen, where the sticker price misleads, which dupe houses save the most, and what a price check can never tell you about a scent.

How much do perfume dupes really save per millilitre?

Perfume dupes save a median of 85.2% per millilitre against the original, across the 113 claimed dupe pairs Accord Twin priced at US shops in September and October 2026. Half of the pairs fall between 77.9% and 91.3%, so a saving in the low eighties is the typical case, not the exception.

Put as money, the median original costs $2.40 a millilitre and the median dupe 33 cents. The median original is therefore about 6.8 times dearer for the same volume of perfume.

The range is wide. At the top, 36 of the 113 pairs save 90% or more. At the bottom, 22 save less than 75%, and 3 save less than half. Fifteen of those 22 low cases are originals that were already priced at a discount shop, or dupes sold in bottles under 90 ml, which is why the next sections matter more than the median.

How did Accord Twin price 113 dupe pairs?

Accord Twin priced each pair from a checked price for both bottles, each with the shop that sold it, the bottle size and the date it was read, and then divided price by millilitres. The pairs come from 80 originals. Every pairing is a published claim: the clone lists that name one bottle as a dupe of another, or an Accord Twin guide that names its source.

The prices are the ones already shown on Accord Twin's dupe pages and guides, read from 75 shops and brand stores between 9 September and 5 October 2026.

Thirty pairs were dropped before counting. Most relied on a shop outside the US or on a page that lists prices without selling anything, such as a fragrance database. One was a 1 ml sample, which costs more per millilitre than a full bottle and would distort the maths. The full list of the 113 that remain is in the downloadable dataset.

Why can the price on the bottle mislead you?

The price on the bottle misleads when the original and the dupe come in different sizes, which was the case in 65 of the 113 pairs. In 13 of them the sticker comparison was off by 10 points or more against the per-millilitre figure.

Usually it hides savings. Dior Sauvage is $115 for 60 ml and Armaf Club de Nuit Urban Man Elixir $39.81 for 105 ml, so the stickers make the dupe look 65.4% cheaper, but per millilitre it is 80.2% cheaper. That happened in 10 of the 13.

Sometimes it inflates them. Armani Acqua Di Gio is $130 for 100 ml and Dossier Aquatic Lime $29 for 50 ml, so the stickers suggest a 77.7% saving. Per millilitre it is 55.4%.

Per millilitre is the only fair comparison.

Every Accord Twin guide compares per millilitre for exactly this reason, and the study shows how often the shortcut goes wrong.

Which dupe houses save the most per millilitre?

Maison Alhambra, Afnan and Lattafa dupes saved the most per millilitre among the houses with at least ten priced pairs, at medians of 87.4%, 86.8% and 85.8%. Armaf followed at 83.5%.

The small groups need care. Zara's four pairs and Dossier's five are too few to rank a house on, and Dossier's lower figure follows from its 50 ml bottles at $29 rather than from any one expensive bottle. The ranges matter as much as the medians: every big house has pairs below 65%.

Do dearer originals give bigger savings?

Dearer originals gave bigger savings in Accord Twin's check: originals costing $4 or more a millilitre saved a median of 93.1% through their dupes, against 78.8% for originals under $2 a millilitre. The middle band, $2 to $4 a millilitre, saved 89.2%.

The reason is arithmetic more than anything about perfume: 88% of the dupes in the set cost between $20 and $50 a bottle, so the dearer the original, the larger the share of its price they remove.

That has a practical side. A dupe of a $130 designer bottle saves real money, but less than the headline figures suggest, and a discounted original can close much of the gap.

How big can the saving on a perfume dupe get?

The saving on a claimed perfume dupe reached 97.8% per millilitre in Accord Twin's check, and 10 of the 113 pairs saved 95% or more. All ten set an original costing $7.20 to $8.33 a millilitre against a dupe at 18 to 39 cents, and seven of the ten are Tom Ford Private Blend bottles.

Creed Aventus shows the scale. At $380 for 50 ml in the Creed US boutique, it costs $7.60 a millilitre. Armaf Club de Nuit Intense Man, the dupe Accord Twin lists for it, was $26.99 for 105 ml at Jomashop, about 26 cents a millilitre, a 96.6% saving.

The smallest saving in the set was 28.1%, and the cause was size, not price: the dupe was sold in a 34 ml bottle, which cost almost as much per millilitre as the original's 100 ml one. The Creed Aventus dupe guide works through the Aventus pair note by note.

Does a bigger saving mean a worse match?

A bigger saving does not show a worse match on its own, because a price check measures money and says nothing about how close the two scents are. A pair can save 95% and share most of its listed notes, or save 60% and share almost none.

The note side has its own evidence. When Accord Twin checked 274 published dupe claims against the listed notes on both sides, 83 showed almost no overlap. Those claims came from the same kind of clone lists as the pairs priced here.

So the two checks answer different questions. This one asks how much a claimed dupe saves. The note check asks whether the claim deserves trust. A buyer needs both, and neither replaces wearing the perfume.

And a note list is still only a list: two bottles with the same notes can smell different, because a list carries no proportions.

How should you compare a dupe price before buying?

Compare a dupe price by dividing each bottle's price by its millilitres, then check that both bottles are the same concentration and that the dupe claim names a source. Those three checks take a minute and catch most of the errors this study found.

Size comes first, because it misled the sticker comparison in 13 of 113 pairs. Concentration comes next: an eau de toilette against an eau de parfum is a different product, and the guide to EDT, EDP and parfum explains why.

Then the claim. A seller's own page calling its bottle a dupe is marketing, not a check, and Accord Twin's guides name the published list each pairing comes from.

Finally, smell before you spend. A small decant of the original costs a fraction of a full bottle, and the guide to perfume decants covers how to buy one safely.

Can journalists and researchers use this data?

Journalists and researchers can use this data freely, with a credit to Accord Twin and a link to this page. The full set of 113 pairs is available as a CSV file, one row per pair.

Each row holds the original and the dupe, both shops, both sizes, both prices in US dollars, the price per millilitre of each, the saving per millilitre, how many times dearer the original is, whether the sizes match, where the dupe claim comes from, and the date the prices were read.

A suggested credit line: Source: Accord Twin dupe price study, October 2026 (accordtwin.com).

Questions, corrections and requests for the method go to hello@accordtwin.com. If a price in the file has changed at the shop, the shop is right and the file is a record of what it showed on the stated date. Corrections sent in are checked and dated in the next version.

What can this study not tell you?

Accord Twin's price study cannot tell you whether any dupe smells like its original, because Accord Twin has not smelled these bottles and a price check measures money, not scent. It also cannot tell you what you will pay today: prices move, and every figure here is what a named shop showed on the stated date between 9 September and 5 October 2026.

The originals were priced wherever a US shop or brand store sold them, sometimes at a discounter, which makes those savings look smaller than a full-price comparison would. The dupe claims are published claims that Accord Twin repeats, not verdicts it has tested.

And 113 pairs is a sample, not the whole market: the clone lists hold hundreds more pairings with no checked US price on both sides. What the study can do is put real, dated numbers on a question most dupe content answers with adjectives.

Prices here are the figures Accord Twin lists, last checked September 2026. They are a reference for comparing bottles, not one shop's till: the same bottle moves with size and retailer, so check the shop before buying.